


Burn Baby Burn

by nicostolemybones (fatherlords)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, Tags will be added as I write, Tartarus fic, contains triggering content, solangelo, solangelo in tartarus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:14:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22147744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fatherlords/pseuds/nicostolemybones
Summary: //discontinued indefinitelyThe fic where I throw Nico and Will into Tartarus. You're welcome.I do not give permission for my work to appear on any apps nor do I consent to my work being reposted anywhere. If you see my work outside of my tumblr or outside of any blogs/accounts I mention in my fics, please report/contact them or inform me. If you report them, do not report as if it were your own work.My tumblr is @nicostolemybones
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 18
Kudos: 45





	1. We All Fall Down

**Author's Note:**

> Tw: falling off a cliff, passing out

"NICO!" Fuck! Nico held his breath and froze into place. He looked down, disorientated. "NICO PLEASE!" Nico released his breath, trying to stop the tears catching in his throat. Will carefully moved closer, reaching out. Nico flinched, and Will panicked at the sudden movement. He grabbed for Nico's sleeve and Nico turned too quickly, losing his balance and stepping back. His foot pressed down harshly and the rock crumbled and he slipped with a panicked scream. Will's grip on the sleeve of Nico's jacket was slipping, and Nico's arm was slipping out of his jacket. Will grabbed Nico's hand last minute, but Nico was tense and panicking and desperately thrashing trying to get his foot on the rocks. The movement was making Will's grip slip. He grabbed under Nico's jacket under his armpit with his other hand, making it easier to pull Nico up, but Will hadn't anticipated the pull of Nico's weight against the gravity, and with a panicked glance into Nico's eyes, he was pulled over the edge and they were free-falling. 

"I'M SORRY! Will-" Will couldn't breathe. He was going to die. He was dizzy and his heart was straining against his chest and his lungs were on fire. 

"I l-love you-" Will forced out, gasping before blacking out.


	2. Pain and Embarrassment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to wake up in hell

Will felt hot and uncomfortable, disoriented and off. Something wasn't right but he didn't know what. The fuzzy feeling was easing, and something was still uncomfortable and off. He lay there on the ground, not daring to move through the sudden wave of nausea. As the shock started to ease as he lay there, the gnawing pain in his abdomen became apparent. He looked around frantically but he couldn't see anything through the pain. He stopped moving, and his sight returned just enough for him to make out his own healing glow. He looked around, shifting onto his hand, but a stabbing pain had him crying out and freezing. 

He'd never been in so much pain before, apart from the one time he had trapped wind and thought he was dying because he couldn't move from the pain. This was exactly the same but ten times worse and he was sweating and dizzy and he felt so sick and the pain was sharp and stabbing and contracting and dull all at once. He tried to sit up and cried out again. The pain didn't relent, and he was shaking, and he was close to throwing up, and he was scared, so scared, and he was remembering, he was remembering the fall and he was scared. "N-neeks…" he called out weakly, but the effort caused caused a surge of pain to rip through his stomach and up his spine. He couldn't see Nico, and that panicked him. He cried out in pain again, rolling onto his back. He turned his head and Nico was there, lying still, but awake, mouth open in a silent gasp of pain. "Nico?"

Nico whimpered, moving his head slightly to look at Will. His breaths were short and ragged, and Will wasn't sure if Nico was in any sort of state to manage to communicate. Nico cried out in pain, panicked tears of pain streaming down his face and distressed sobs jolting him violently, which probably increased his pain. Will realised that he wasn't just glowing out of panic, but he must have been healing himself. He had no idea how long he was unconscious or how hard they'd fallen, how they'd survived. 

He reached out, crying out loudly in pain, and touched his fingers to Nico's, focusing his healing energy on the both of them. He could feel that Nico's bones had been very recently repaired- Nico must have managed to heal his own broken bones- but he had internal bleeding, and Will was pouring as much energy as he could into healing him. His powers were weak and he could feel himself going dizzy, but he had to make sure Nico would survive, he had to! Nico whimpered, and Will healed him until Will felt his body start to feel fuzzy and Nico pulled his hands away. Everything was hot and muffled and a sudden wave of panic and fear and nausea was choking Will. He couldn't stop his vision from fading to black.

Will woke up on his side, pain shooting through him, but less intense than before. It took him a while to register a hand on his shoulder holding him like that, and the acidic burn of vomit in his throat and nostrils. He coughed and took deep breaths, the hand on his shoulder rubbing soothing circles. "Neeks-"

"It's okay, I- I'm okay. Will…" Will took a moment to assess how he felt, before slowly sitting up. Nico shifted to sit in front of him, gently taking his shoulders to support him whilst he leaned forwards slightly to regain his sense of consciousness. "Will?"

"I- I'm okay," Will managed, "fuck, I- can we stay here?"

"We'll die, Will, we have to go, we can't stay here. You blacked out for a day, we have to go, can you stand?" Will looked into Nico's eyes, gasping in stale air and processing that. He hung his head for a second whilst he prepared to stand, but in the light of his glow he noticed the front of his shorts were stained, turning puce with shame. "Will? Will, it's okay, it happens, you were unconscious for a while and you started fitting." 

A fit certainly explained his headache, and the vomiting, and he honestly didn't think it was safe to move, but his embarrassment was consuming him and he couldn't look Nico in the eye, tears welling up and threatening to spill over. "Please tell me there's- there's a bathroom I can clean myself up in?"

"Ah, jeez Will, uh… this isn't Walmart, this is Tartarus, there aren't any…"

"Oh gods…" Will started crying, anxious and ashamed and uncomfortable. 

"Take your pants off."

"What?!" Will turned red. "Nico-"

"I have sweatpants in my backpack," Nico clarified, "they'll be too small on you but they're elasticated, I doubt you want to sit in it all day." 

"Uh- but I'll have to get half naked-"

"Would you rather wear wet pants? You'll have to get used to it, I'm sorry, but you will. We can't separate, it's not safe. I can turn around whenever you need privacy and I'm sure you'll do the same for me, but we really don't have the luxury of being shy." Will knew Nico was right, but that didn't stop Will from being completely mortified and horrified and anxious. "I'll turn around, or- will you feel better if I hold my jacket up to hide you whilst you change and I look up and close my eyes instead?" 

Will nodded slowly, feeling far too insecure and overwhelmed right now to change without the shield. Nico took his jacket off and held it up, squeezing his eyes shut and facing the sky- or whatever was up there. Will peeled off his shorts and boxers, feeling gross. 

"Is there anywhere I can shower-"

"What do you think? But there's wipes in my bag, use one." Will awkwardly complied, putting Nico's sweatpants on afterwards. They were way too small, and he looked like he was waiting for a flood, but at least he felt cleaner. He cleared his throat awkwardly once he was changed. "You done?"

"Yeah, you can look now…" Nico lowered his jacket, and snorted a restrained laugh. 

"Feel better?" Will nodded awkwardly, and Nico put his jacket back on. "Would it help you to know what's in my bag before we start moving?" Will nodded quickly, and Nico opened his bag, holding up each item as he listed them off. "Torch, wet wipes- for hygiene, combat first aid kit, spare clothes, a few bottles of water, some energy bars, knives, a lighter, matches, petroleum, food tin, and emergency lucozade. It's not the perfect survival kit but it's the best I can do."

"That's… that's all you brought on the quest?"

"Well I don't usually fall into Tartarus with my boyfriend do I? We have to start moving now." Nico put his backpack on and started walking, but Will hesitated. "Will? Come on." 

"It's scary," Will whimpered, "and I don't feel well and my stomach hurts… can we stay here?"

Nico sighed, walking back to Will and taking his hand. "I know it hurts, and I know it's scary, but there's monsters down here, they can smell us, I know it feels safe because it's secluded and I know you just want some comfort and rest right now, but you will be hurt if you stay here. Will… you are going to have no choice but to push yourself to do things you know you can't handle. You are going to be in pain, you are going to be uncomfortable, any food we hunt is going to make us violently ill. There's horrors- there's things I haven't told you about, okay, and… you're going to wish at times that the fall had killed you. But we can make it out of here, okay? And as soon as we're out, we can process the trauma and heal. But right now, we have to survive. I know you're in pain and you're in shock and you want to set up camp, but that's not an option, not until we are about to pass out from sleep. I know you're scared, but I am asking you to trust me to get you through this, and you're going to hate it by the end of it, but please, Will, trust me." 

Will nodded, on the verge of tears, and started talking shaky steps. He knew logically Tartarus was unpleasant, but this wasn't the image he had in mind. He expected fire and brimstone and monsters, sure, and dehydration and food being hard to find, but the reality was already leaving him sick with adrenaline, and he knew that there was far worse to come, and if he could barely handle the first dark morning, the pain of the fall, then how could he cope with what was to come? How did Nico cope with this when he was a child? The pain in Will's stomach was building up with each step, and he felt like he might collapse or vomit any second, but he tried his hardest to push through it. He wondered if the pain would ever ease. He figured it wouldn't.


	3. Exhaustion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw: extreme physical exhaustion, collapsing, violent suicidal thoughts, intrusive thoughts, pain

It felt like they'd walked for days. Will's feet were numb apart from the sharp stinging ache every time his foot touched the ground. It was like walking on gravel with no shoes on. His knees were buckling, his back weak and struggling to support him. Nico was walking ahead of him, pale and gaunt. Will felt dizzy and sick and hot and fuzzy as he collapsed to the ground, sharp glass rocks digging in his face and palms. He didn't have the energy to cry out, but Nico was by his side in an instant.

"I can't," Will choked out. Nico shook his head, tears welling.

"Please, Will, we don't have a choice, if we stop then the monsters will come-"

"Nico you're- expressing an unhealthy amount of concern right now, okay? I get that you're scared, but Nico, I can't walk anymore, I can't!" Will didn't have the energy to cry- he felt unusually drained, on the verge of some kind of breakdown because he didn't think he'd have the energy to eat or drink or go to the bathroom. He could feel his body shutting down. He needed to lay there for a while.

But Nico wasn't being merciful, attempting to haul Will up. He didn't have the energy to bare his weight on his legs, falling forwards again. Nico kept trying to get him up and Will gave up trying to, using the last of his strength to pull himself out of Nico's grip. Nico looked at him distressed. "Will, please, come on, just get up!"

"It hurts too much, Nico, we've been walking for so long, I can't anymore, I can't!"

"No no, you don't understand, you have to get up, please!" Nico's eyes were wild and desperate and he was shaking. "I don't have the energy to help you up, please Will, you have to keep moving!" Will sobbed loudly, although no tears came out. Nico tried one last time to haul him up, before he staggered and collapsed too. 

"Neeks…"

"I told you… to get up," Nico chastised, "I told you I didn't have the energy to help you. Now we're defenseless, this is why we have to keep moving!" 

"Neeks, I can't! I can't, okay?"

"We're gonna die, Will! Don't you understand! We have to keep going. We have to keep going until our muscles aren't burning and we can't walk straight because lack of oxygen is damaging our brains. We have to walk until we keep falling and feel like we're fine when we already felt like we were dying. Because when we stop there's monsters. And the more we stop, the more often we get hurt, the more injured we get, the more frequently we'll have to stop as a consequence to make us hurt even more. This isn't a case of resting to conserve energy. This is a case of death, we have to get back up."

Will was hit with a sudden wave of panic, because for the first time, he was bombarded with dark feelings of wanting to die. He'd never been suicidal, and now his brain was obsessing about it, what it would be like to rot, to lay himself down until the grass grew over him and moss carpeted his bones and nature claimed his skeleton. He didn't want to die. But all he could think about was giving up, was ending it all right there, of grabbing Nico's knife and hacking at his throat until he bled out. He was shocked and horrified by the violence of the images popping into his head, of snapping every bone in his body one by one, of pulling out his intestines from his butt, of hitting himself viciously with a rock and crushing his own skull. 

He briefly wondered how tired he'd have to get before he started hallucinating. Nothing felt real anymore, he didn't feel real. Nothing felt right or real like the intrusive thoughts did. And that scared him, it scared him to shock.

He was in shock and he wanted out and he was giving up because he was scared and he couldn't do this but Nico would cry if he were gone so Will couldn't, he had to stay strong, he couldn't die here like this. He was too exhausted to process that.

He had to sleep it all away. He needed to. He had to. So he closed his eyes, brain too clouded with exhaustion to realise the full extent of the danger he was putting himself in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I took so long to update. There's been a lot of sudden changes in my life and more important things to focus on, plus a new fandom for me. Sorry about the delay, truly, and sorry this next chapter isn't very long.


End file.
